Top 5 books that didn’t live up to the hype!

If you’re a part of the bookish community in any way, you know how easy it is to get caught up in the hype. A certain book will all of a sudden be EVERYWHERE! Pictures, hauls, reviews, insta, – everywhere! Suddenly, you’ve heard about it so much that it’s in your dreams and you’re convinced that you NEED the book! But by the time you get around to reading it, it doesn’t live up to your expectations. Here are 5 books where the hype told me that I would love it, but it didn’t turn out quite as expected:

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme where I explore different topics. If you are interested in participating I would love to have you! Here is a list of my Upcoming topics in October – please remember to ping back a specific post of mine so I get a notification and I will add you to the participants list!

HEARTLESS by Marissa Meyer

There were so many reasons why this book was hyped. Her Lunar Chronicles series was AMAZING and this was a retelling of Alice where we learn about the red Queen and why she went crazy! Everything about this screamed for me to love it. But sadly, it just fell flat. There didn’t seem to be enough strings to connect what she turned into! No, her life wasn’t easy, but she just snapped without reason and went completely evil. I guess I expected a slow burn to that event. But the character development was also lacking, and the plot moved a little too slow for me. Her other series though – phenomenal!!

FLAME IN THE MIST by Renee Ahdieh

This is yet another retelling (I promise I really do love retellings!) but this was was much of the same as Heartless. I absolutely LOVED The Wrath and the Dawn duology. It was just soooooo good! But I felt like this book was a little forced and hadn’t had much time spent on it to develop it as much as her first series. The characters were lacking, the plot was lacking, and it just didn’t feel complete. I found myself getting so confused and not being able to connect to the characters in any way.

BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman

For the longest time, this book was everywhere! People refused to talk about it because of spoilers. Basically the only thing I knew going into it was that there were monsters that if you look at them, they can get you. So if you go outside or look out the window, you need to be blindfolded. Terrifying! But my issue with this book was that it lacked all detail! Yes, there was suspense and that was great and all. But I’m the type of person who needs to know what I’m supposed to be scared of! This was just so blah!

FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

When I first started getting back into reading, everyone was screaming about Rainbow Rowell. Most specifically, Fangirl. I wasn’t sold on that one, so I read her other books and LOVED them! But when I finally read Fangirl, I realized that this was just not meant for me. I was entirely the wrong audience for this. I found the characters soooooo annoying!

CATWOMAN – SOULSTEALER by Sarah. J. Maas

I realize that anything SJM is hyped! Let’s be honest! But this was way out of her comfort zone and people seemed to really love it! Early reviews were all 4-5 stars and everyone was freaking out! But for me, this is yet another case of it just not being meant for me. It wasn’t great, and it wasn’t awful. It was just something mediocre and I had others things that I wanted to read more. So I gave up on it and moved to a book I was more interested in.

I need to also send out yet another apology as I won’t have the chance to comment on the participants posts today. I am still catching up from the off the grid readathon, and I have a busy day ahead of me. I will add you all to the list ASAP though! What books were super hyped and you didn’t agree where the hype came from?

Oh no not Heartless! It’s one of my favorite books of all time!! lol No worries though. The only other book I’ve read on your list is Fangirl and I enjoyed it. I don’t understand why people are cray-cray over it but it was decent. I’ve also been looking forward to Flame In the Mist and Catwoman, I hope they don’t let me down.

It’s so interesting to see people’s opinions and how different they can be! I liked that Bird Box was vague about what was it that we’re supposed to be scared about (firstly because, really, that book requires LOTS of suspension of reality to be enjoyed). But yes, I thought the author would tell us what the thing was after all. I didn’t mind it though.

Also I loved Fangirl! Hahahaha what other RR books did you read?? I wasn’t sure I wanted to pick up anything else because this was cute but… not entirely my style.

Oh noooo, I have heartless on my shelves but haven’t read anything by Marissa Meyer yet.. guess I’ll start with the Lunar Chronicles haha
I loved Fangirl. I was one of the first books I read and I found it super cute!
Great list 😉

I’ve changed my mind so much about Fangirl over the years. I loved it when I first read it but now I don’t get why I was so obsessed with it haha. It wasn’t a terrible book but it also wasn’t as amazing as I first thought.

I’ve only read Heartless and Fangirl and I actually loved them both! I do have to say I went into them without any hype in mind, so that probably helped me enjoy them that much (hype can ruin books, for real!). I found Heartless to be my favorite Marissa Meyer’s book, although I have only read Cinder, Scarlet and Renegades so far. As for Fangirl, I found it nice and cute -but, admittedly, nothing super special.